Hemangioma – Laser Treatment

Transcript

Lasers are used in general to shrink the birthmark by hitting the color of the birthmark and having it absorb heat. In essence, what you’re doing is you are melting the vessels (or cooking the vessels) that are involved in the birthmark. The most common ones that we use lasers for are venous malformations, hemangiomas, and capillary malformations like port-wine stains. Capillary malformations and hemangiomas typically need a Pulsed Dye Laser, whereas a venous malformation (or the little blue ones that you can see sometimes on people’s lips – even tiny venous lakes) those are treated more aptly using an Nd:YAG laser, which has a different wavelength to hit the blue coloration of the vessels.